Fire Emblem: Understanding
by twindragonsx1
Summary: When Severa and her mother get into a heated argument, it's up to middleman Stahl to fix things... again. Modern AU.


"I'm not a little kid anymore, mom!"

Their shouts echoed throughout the house as they argued, their voices rising in volume as one tried to outdo the other.

"I know you aren't! But you need to learn to be more responsible before I can treat you like an adult!"

Severa seethed. "Responsible? Is that it? That I'm not responsible enough? I do plenty of things, and you said yourself that I am a 'responsible young woman'!"

"I know, and you are! But some decisions are out of your control. You can't make a decision and expect everyone to follow it!"

"I don't expect people to follow me! But I do expect you to listen to me once in a while, and listen to my wants and needs, mom!"

"What do you mean? Of course I listen to you! Why would you think otherwise?" Cordelia exclaimed exasperatedly.

"You're controlling me! Everything I do, you're basically breathing down my back! I live on your schedule!" Severa's eyes burned with hatred.

"I do not control you! I only want what's best for you!"

"Well, I don't care about what's 'best for me'! I want to be responsible for my own life, just for once!"

"Just listen to yourself! You're telling me you don't want what will make your life easy?!"

"No, I don't!" Severa slammed her hands down on the kitchen table. "I want life to be difficult! I want to go through some of the hardships that everyone else does! How will I live my life without you and dad when I move out?"

"Please, Severa," Cordelia's voice lowered, "Your father and I only want what's best for you. We're not trying to control your life, and we're certainly not trying to bar you from experiencing what life has to offer. But we need to protect you from what's out there, all of the dangerous things that are on the streets."

"Don't change the subject, mom!" Severa said coldly. "You know that's not what's bothering me!"

"Then we're not controlling you! We're guiding you the best we can!"

"Guiding me?! You call pushing me around guiding me?!"

"We are not pushing you around! What's gotten into you? We are protecting you!"  
Severa stood up. "Protecting me from what?! What's so dangerous out there that you have to protect me from?! I can handle myself, and I'm with my friends most of the time!"

Cordelia fell silent.

Hesitantly, Severa continued. "You don't know what you're 'protecting' me from, do you?"

"Yes, I do!" she replied.

"You know what? I'm done here. I don't care what you say." She turned and began walking away.

Cordelia followed her. "Severa, come back here right now! We are not finished!"

"No, mom! You can't control my life anymore! I'm almost eighteen, and I need to learn to be independent!"

Cordelia grabbed her daughter's shoulder and spun her around. "Just listen to me for once, damn it!"

"Let me go!" Angrily, Severa shook herself free.

"Come here! We need to talk!" She made a grab for the younger woman's arm again.

"Let go of me!" Severa shoved Cordelia hard.

She stumbled, but her resolve didn't falter. "I can't let you go! You need to listen!"

"Why can't you get the message through your thick skull?! I hate you, mom, and I don't want to see you ever again!"

The hurt showed on Cordelia's face, but Severa pressed on.

"Every day of my life, I'm looked down upon! Everyone I know compares me to you!" Cordelia could see the tears brimming in her daughter's eyes. "'Why can't you be more like your mom?''Why are you so bad at this?''Why aren't you so perfect like your mom?'"

"And I'm tired! Tired of being... of being worse than you at everything! At being inferior to you!"

"I... Severa, I..." Cordelia reached out to her.

She slapped her mother's hand away. "You still don't see it, do you?" The tears were flowing freely now. "I hate you. I really do, and I never want to see you again. I know it seems childish, but I mean it." With those closing words, she turned and began walking away.

"Please, Severa!" Cordelia called out as she stormed off.

Her cries fell upon deaf ears.

* * *

By the time Stahl came home from work, it was dark out.

Every day he came home from work, he would find his beautiful wife in the kitchen, fixing their family something to eat for dinner. They'd sit down and talk about how their day had been, and he would have at least one story from work that would make her laugh that one laugh that brought a smile to his face, that warmed his heart.

So this was how he knew right away that something was wrong when he stepped into the house and saw that the kitchen was dark.

"And I was really hungry, too..." He grumbled.

Walking up the stairs, he rounded the corner into his shared bedroom. Inside, he saw that the room was already dark.

And there was the second indicator that something was wrong that night: Cordelia was in bed early.

Normally, after dinner, she was either upstairs spending time with Stahl or sitting in the living room watching TV until early the next morning. But here she was, sleeping soundly within their bed.

He came over to her side, brushing her red hair to the side. The moonlight streaming in through the window revealed something that Stahl didn't want nor expect to see.

She had been crying. The streaks were still present on her face, and her pillow was soaked with tears.

"Oh, gods..." Stahl murmured. Nothing made his wife cry. At least, nothing that he knew of.

Walking into his walk-in closet, he changed into his pajamas, and headed over to Severa's room. He suspected that his daughter would know what had happened.

He could see that the light was out, and that usually meant that Severa was sleeping. Nevertheless, he opened the door just a crack, very slowly.

The room was barely large enough for it to be called a bedroom. There was a closet in the corner, and a dresser leaned against the far wall by the window. The bed rested by the closet, and the nightstand was crammed between the wall and the bed. The desk that sat next to the dresser was littered with cosmetics, and a mirror hung on the closet door.

Creeping inside of the room, Stahl carefully made his way over to the bed. Instantly, his suspicions were confirmed; Severa was awake. She clearly had not noticed his entrance into the room, as the covers were thrown over her entire body. Her form was shaking slightly, evidence that she, too, was crying.

"Uh, hey," he said, trying to get her attention.

She bolted upright, a surprised but angry look on her face. Stahl raised his hands in defense. "Whoa, there, kitty, calm down. It's just daddy."

Her face instantly turned to one of irritation, and she simply fell back down to her bed.

He leaned over her. "What's wrong, Severa? Tell me."

Wordlessly, she turned over and threw the covers back over her face.

"You can tell daddy," he said softly. "You used to tell me everything when you were little."

She finally replied, her voice muffled from the blankets. "Gods, go away, dad!"

"Hey, come on, what's with the sudden hostility?" Her only response was to throw a pillow at him.

Expertly catching it, he put it back down with the other ones.

"Severa, please. I love you, and I care about you. You know that, right?" She shifted underneath the sheets.

"I care about you so much, more than anything. And so does your mother." At the mention of Cordelia, he could feel her tense up.

"I saw she went to bed early today. We both know she doesn't do that unless she's hurt inside," he said. "And you know what else? She was crying. She cried herself to sleep." He saw that Severa's trembling became more prominent with his words. But he continued, determined to solve this situation.  
"She doesn't do that unless she feels betrayed. Trust me, I know that. And I know, that you know, why she's so upset."

He could practically feel the guilt radiating off of her body by now. The sniffles began as she desperately tried to hold back tears.

Stahl was quiet for several moments, letting his words sink in. Then he finally spoke.

"Come here," he said softly.

Severa did so, flying into her father's arms and finally letting the tears fall. Sobs wracked her frame as she cried into the sleeve of his fleece pajamas.

"I-I'm sorry..."

"Shh... Don't cry, you're too beautiful to stain your face with tears," Stahl said. "Don't cry..."  
"I'm so sorry..."

"Shh..." He patted her back gently as he held her. "I know. I was here in your position once."

Severa looked up at him. "R-Really?"

"Yeah. I was. I said something really, really insensitive to my dad before. He was so mad at me, and I felt so bad about it. I went to my mom for help, and she told me to just talk it out with him. So I did."

He held his daughter close as he continued. "After that, everything was great. What I'm really trying to say is, go talk it out with your mother. I know you're both hurting right now, but the only way for that pain to stop is to come to terms with each other."

"But... How did you know that I made mom upset?"

Stahl smiled. "Just call it a hunch. Now, go talk to your mother. I'm sure you'll both need it right now." He helped her out of bed and lightly pushed her towards the door.

"Um, won't you come too?" She asked.

He shook his head. "No, I can't. This is something you'll have to do alone. After all, I hear you sometimes say that you want to start doing things on your own, right?"

Severa was quiet for a bit. "Yeah. I guess you are." She turned and opened the door.

"And dad?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Stahl smiled. "Of course. You know I love you. Now go."

She slipped through the doorway, and the room fell silent.

Stahl stood up and sighed. "About that dinner..."

* * *

Severa snuck into her parents' room as quietly as she could, her footsteps muffled by the soft carpet. She approached her mother's sleeping form, quiet and barely moving. Gently, she shook her shoulder.

"Mom... Mom, wake up."

Cordelia still did not move, instead opting to turn over and brush Severa's hand off of her.

"Wake up, mom. Please." She shook her a little harder.

"Stahl, seriously. I'm trying to sleep... Go away..."

Severa groaned exasperatedly. Anger flaring within her, she grabbed her mother with both hands and shook her rather violently.

"Gods, mom! Get up!"

Finally, Cordelia sat up, rubbing her eyes groggily.

"Oh, um, it's you, Severa. Was there something you needed?" Her tone of voice was subdued and quiet, not bold and confident as it usually was.

"Um..." She began. Silently, she cursed herself for rushing into this situation without a clue of what she was doing.

"I just wanted to say that... um, that I was... er, I am, sorry."

Cordelia blinked in surprise. Her daughter, cold, harsh, and unforgiving, was apologizing? That was a first.

"You're... sorry?"

Severa glared. "Yes! I said it! I'm... sorry. Okay?"

She laughed. "Okay, now I know you didn't just come and apologize of your own accord. Your dad went and talked to you, didn't he?"

"That doesn't matter. I just wanted to come and say that I was sorry. The whole argument was stupid."

Cordelia's face became serious. "No, it wasn't. It told me how you really felt about and what you wanted from me. So don't be sorry."

Severa simply stared down at the floor.

"We've both learned something today, you know? Interpret the situation as you see fit, but I think you learned that even though it seems like we don't sometimes, your father and I care so much about you. And I learned that, well, there's a very fine line between holding you back and protecting you."

Smiling slightly, Severa replied. "I think you're right, mom."

Cordelia returned the smile before drawing her daughter in for a hug. "That's my girl. Gods, you've grown so much. It seems like you were only a year old and I was twenty four just yesterday. Now here you are, nineteen years old, about to head off to college, and I'm forty three years old."

She continued. "It's hard to believe how fast time has gone by. You're an adult now, Severa, which means when you're off living on your own, you'll have to be responsible and make some choices, okay?"

Severa nodded. "Alright. You don't have to worry so much about me."

She laughed. "Of course. I know you'll do just fine out there. I want you to be smart and be safe out there, that's all."

"I know. And I will."

Cordelia sighed as she held her daughter. "Oh, I'm going to miss you so much when you're gone."

"Me too, mom. Me too."

They separated as Cordelia spoke again. "You should go to bed. It's late."

"Okay, I guess you're right." She turned to leave.

"And Severa?"

The young woman looked over her shoulder.

"Your father and I love you, and support every decision you make in school, as long as it's for the best. Always remember that."

Severa smiled. "I will, mom. Thanks."

And with those final parting words, she disappeared through the doorway.

**(A/N: I'm slightly disappointed in the fact that there isn't too much Stahl/Cordelia in the fandom. I mean, come on. Most people I've read about have Cordelia marry Gaius, for example. I've seen, what, three people that like Stahl/Cordelia?**

** While we're on the topic, the main ships I support are:**

** Chrom/Sully**

** Robin/Sumia**

** Frederick/Maribelle**

** Stahl/Cordelia **

** Lon'qu/ Panne**

** Vaike/Lissa**

** The more… minor ships I support are:  
Virion/Cherche**

** Libra/Olivia**

** Henry/Tharja**

** Miriel/Ricken**

**But seriously, I'm not quite sure if I did alright. This is my first Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic, so all constructive criticism is welcome. I would especially like to know how I did with the characterization and portrayal of the characters.**

** More to come soon. I have another one-shot in the works, which will be released soon. If there is anything you guys would like to see, you can PM me and let me know!**

** Thanks for reading!)**


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